Address Was Directions

[00:01] Oh, we doing under Googles. That was the play of super excited told us we had to
[00:12] this. We said we signed up for it. In the end, it's gonna be better and more true
[00:20] than Google can give you. All right, we got an under Google bull for you this
[00:27] week. All right, Jason, this actually came in from my wife. And I mean, anybody
[00:37] of course is welcome to to answer this question. But I thought you might have a
[00:42] little more experience in this because your family background. But so when you
[00:48] send mail internationally, you give the post office money. And here's the way I
[00:57] see it. You send something wherever it doesn't matter. You send something to to
[01:02] China. You go in you pay our our post office, the American post office, whatever
[01:09] those 30 bucks or whatever. You wrap it up, you say that there's no nothing
[01:14] flammable or whatever. perishable, all that stuff. So they do some work, the USPS
[01:25] does some work with that. They ship it off to China does the Chinese post
[01:31] social service is going to do, let's say half the work or whatever they got and
[01:35] that someone's gonna deliver to somebody's house or whatever. They're
[01:39] doing, let's say half the work. I didn't give them any money. How do they get
[01:42] paid? Like it's a whole worldwide system of people just doing work. And how
[01:50] does everyone get the right amount of money? Because you wouldn't want to get
[01:53] host in that process? Or is it just a it's just a bunch of goodwill amongst the
[02:00] world postal services? I'm gonna say originally it was probably a bunch of
[02:07] goodwill. And that would be for things like letters or postcards or whatever.
[02:13] Like things that are of small that are not resource intensive to get to
[02:21] wherever in China. And it was just like a postal service, you know, gentlemen's
[02:29] agreement. If you just throw in another letter on the back, like we believe in
[02:32] the philosophy that you should be able to deliver something to wherever in the
[02:39] world. Right, exactly. And it'll get there. Right. Now, as the postal service took on
[02:50] more sort of probably package shipping, I imagine that most of that most of the
[02:55] parcel shipping I bet is like private companies. Right. Like FedEx just has a
[03:01] China operation or something like that. And so they deliver it to wherever. And I
[03:09] would assume that basically the the receiving country would be a subcontractor
[03:18] of the shipping country's postal service. Right. So our US is so if you're
[03:25] gonna ship something to France, right, our USPS charges you something that takes
[03:32] into account what they're gonna have to pay the French postal service to get it
[03:38] to the right place. That would be my guess. Okay. So that way, I mean, because
[03:43] clearly the the person who's sending it has you don't want to pay two post
[03:48] offices. It's wholly impractical. Yes. I don't know. What do you guys think? I
[03:55] think some of it probably depends on the country. I mean, the USPS is a pretty
[04:00] unique institution on some level, right? In its level of service and reliability.
[04:12] Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's more reliable than. Yes. And better service
[04:20] than than other. Yeah. I mean, other countries, I think for a long time, like
[04:25] I think a lot of it was private. Right. And so I think, yeah, it probably depends
[04:32] on the country. But I mean, I think you're right, Jason, I think that, you
[04:36] know, we have agreements with these countries. The USPS is super good at
[04:40] what they do. And they know how much is going to cost once it gets on the ground
[04:44] there. And they just build that into your price structure or hand it off to
[04:48] UPS or FedEx or whoever. Mm hmm. The question is, do they need permission from
[04:57] Congress every time they want to like subcontract a parcel getting shipped to
[05:03] Austria or something? If they want to change the price, because Austria raised
[05:09] their prices or something like that. Yeah, I know. No, you're right. I was just, I
[05:16] learned from Julie other day, she lived in Costa Rica and she didn't have an
[05:20] address. The address was just directions from the office where something would get
[05:27] received. So like her parents would send her a piece of mail and it would say
[05:31] like, down the road, half a mile, hang a left. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Awesome.
[05:40] So I don't know. Yeah, I guess we got a Google and also, yeah, shout out to my
[05:46] mom and dad. They can write in with the answer to say about that experience. I'm
[05:52] sure my dad had delivered some packages from overseas at some point. While
[05:59] you're checking that out, it was reminded, Harper, what you're talking
[06:03] about there, the unprecedented, fantastic service that they give. And I think
[06:08] that's usually the case, but it was reminded of a story starting last year.
[06:15] The investigation started last year. It was about a postal service employee, a
[06:22] carrier from Virginia Beach, Virginia. And he was quote, too stressed to finish his
[06:30] job. So he rented a storage unit and was just delivering his mail. Couldn't make
[06:42] time and he was felt pressured to complete his route. That's not worse than
[06:46] the UPS guy who was, who got busted in like a 10 year FBI sting for shipping
[06:55] drugs. He was like a millionaire. It was like him and like three drivers, but
[06:59] you can get anywhere. Apparently with a uniform and a UPS truck. I guess that's
[07:03] true. I'm supposed to be there. I've seen a lot of these online now, you know,
[07:10] there's these like ring and these other door doorbell cameras are becoming much
[07:15] more popular. And you see a fair amount of these deliveries of expensive,
[07:21] delicate things just being chucked onto the, onto the porch. And you got video
[07:27] of it. I'm sure most people don't do that, but, but it happens. Okay, so we were
[07:37] kind of right. So you pay postage to the US Postal Service, but a part of that
[07:47] cost covers postal labor and infrastructure in the United States.
[07:51] Another part takes care of the transportation to the foreign country,
[07:57] which the Postal Service regularly contracts private carriers like FedEx or
[08:05] UPS or something like that. And then there's also a fee paid to the
[08:13] receiving country postal service to get it to the final destination. And there
[08:19] is a universal postal union, which is based in Switzerland with 191 member
[08:26] countries that sort of figures out what these fees are supposed to be typically
[08:31] based on like weight and distance or whatever. Yeah, slate nailed this thing.
[08:36] The UPU was founded in 1874. Yeah. Wow. And old postmarks, you could see like the postmark
[08:51] for every trip of the segment, basically. Oh, wow. Oh, they stamp it every, every one.
[08:56] Do the, the US post office then of course are charging fees for the international mail
[09:04] coming in this direction. Exactly. Is there an imbalance on one side or the other? We
[09:09] probably don't know that. That I don't know. Yeah. The UPU definitely can
[09:15] penalize members for late delivery. Mm-hmm. Like a spanking? But you have to be
[09:26] really bad. You, you get docked your dues if more than 86% of incoming letters
[09:33] late to their destination. I like how it's 86. They voted on 85 and they're like, oh, I don't know.
[09:44] Wait, wait. You said more than 86% are late? Yeah. So this is like, all right,
[09:49] you need a 14% to pass this test. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's right. It's one hell of a,
[09:55] one hell of a bell curve there. The curve. Yeah, the curve is dirty on that one.
[10:00] The poster stamp was introduced in Britain in 1840. Prior to that, it was generally the receiver who
[10:10] paid for shipping. Like a collect phone call? Yeah. COD. How bad do you want this letter?
[10:21] Cash on delivery. But before the UPU was founded in 1874, the international mail system was little
[10:33] more than a complex network of bilateral treaties. Centers had to arrange privately for every leg.
[10:38] So to send a letter to a cousin of Russia, you might first have to find someone you knew in
[10:42] France who could forwarded someone he knew in Germany and so forth. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's rough.
[10:51] Yeah, it seems a lot easier to get mail back and forth now.
[10:56] USPS is awesome, man. I'm saying. Yeah.
[10:59] Shout out. So sub on the Google, so the UPU has 191 member countries.
[11:05] Is that all of the countries in the world? I want to know more.
[11:08] I want to know who's holding out. 218 or so. Okay. Okay.
[11:15] Somebody's holding out. Or they got kicked out because they're
[11:18] delivery rate. Their latest was over 86%. There's currently 195 and 193 of those are
[11:26] UN members. The Holy See and Palestine are observer states. By some definitions, there are 197.
[11:39] God damn it. But the United Nations recognizes 241 countries and territories.
[11:46] What? The United States officially recognizes fewer than 200.
[11:52] So it can be whatever you want. Yeah, but we also create new territories like Nambia.
[12:06] Good old Nambia. Who's Becky, Becky Stan, you know.
[12:09] And the United States. That was a good one, Joey.
[12:18] Yeah. Yeah, very nice. Appreciate your shout out to Catherine.
[12:22] Yeah, good work on that. Yeah, you guys pretty much nailed it.
[12:25] And I'm glad we learned about the UPU. I did not know about that.
[12:30] Do they just like, if you just pay your dues, can you just join? Do you know?
[12:34] Well, as long as you're recognized by the United Nations, I would imagine.
[12:38] Apparently, anybody can be recognized by them there.
[12:42] You better get at least 86% of your letters.
[12:45] You're going to start ducking your fees.
[12:52] Who decides what on time is?
[12:56] And like, when's the last time like, who's keeping the numbers?
[12:59] Time is just a construct.
[13:01] Well, that's definitely true. But also like, I've had stuff like,
[13:05] just not, who do I, who do you complain to?
[13:08] The UPU.
[13:12] I feel like this is not a good system.
[13:14] Colloptic obelicity.
[13:15] What do I know?
[13:19] I ordered something from Amazon.
[13:22] Supposed to be here February 14th.
[13:24] Latest, latest thing they said, April 10th.
[13:30] I got a shipping notice that it will be here later today.
[13:32] And then the next thing I said, you know what?
[13:33] It'll actually be here in April.
[13:35] That is slightly off.
[13:37] And now we know why Catherine went to Nepal.
[13:40] Because that Valentine's Day gift did not arrive on time.
[13:46] Nothing to do with Valentine's Day, which makes it worse.
[13:50] We're a couple days in the Goofyreda household.
[13:52] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[13:54] Now, baby, I swear, it's coming. It's supposed to come.
[13:57] Just, let me show you this notice.
[14:03] I love you in April.
[14:11] Who's cutting that part out?
[14:14] No, no, that's the title of the show, buddy.
[14:17] I love you in April.
[14:20] Oh, no.
[14:21] All right.
[14:21] Well, it's time we get out and get going.
[14:23] Don't worry.
[14:24] She's not get through the first half of this.
[14:28] She did start listening to...
[14:30] She said she started listening to the under Googles.
[14:33] Nice.
[14:33] So she'll hear that quote in a couple years.
[14:38] Yeah, that's right.